5.

Team? We don't need no stinkin' team! But they might show up. We'll see. Pretty sad when I'm not even certain.

Sweets is pretty bad when Booth eventually finds him after lying in the street for two hours. The delayed response from the ambulance combined with the pending possibility that the gang or people they know might return while they are rescuing Sweets causes Booth to load Sweets up in the SUV and take him himself. The gang finds out that Sweets is gone.

"Man you better find me someone who knows!" DJ-D shouted in the phone. Big Dog was trying to stand tall and not look afraid but it wasn't working well. Though the kid had little to do with Sweets not being where they left him, DJ-D didn't seem interested in the details.

He picked up the phone to make another call. "Yeah, we're trying to find out where he would have gone. Yeah man I didn't think of that, you think he called that punk ass Fed friend? Yeah well we're finding out, sounds like the Big Eight saw something and they owe us one. Get everyone else together."

The flashes of blue and red in the car in front of him kept Booth's attention on the road. He hadn't been prepared for everything he had just discovered and was still wrapping his head around it. These things don't happen to my people Booth told himself but as he glanced in the rear view mirror he saw that indeed, it had happened to one of his people.

His phone buzzed and he realized he had forgotten to call Brennan back.

"Bones, we're on our way to the hospital." He said without giving her a chance to speak first.

"I'll call Cam, Angela and Hodgins." Brennan said and Booth could tell she was busy doing something and then he heard a car start.

"Bones, where are you going?"

"I'm dropping Christine with Max and then I'm coming to the hospital, which one?"

"I don't know yet. It looks like we headed to County, they should be the closest."

Booth was impressed with how level Brennan was but he also knew how well she kept her emotions under lock and key.

"How is he?" Brennan asked and now Booth heard the break in her voice.

Booth looked back in the rear view mirror. Sweets breathing went from shallow to more labored. He had been involuntarily twisting in the seat as he seemed to search for air to come more easily but it wasn't.

"Booth?" Brennan asked again.

"Um, yeah we're almost there."

"Okay, I'm on my way." Brennan hung up and it wasn't lost on her that Booth answered her question.

The entrance to the hospital was a blur to Booth. The staff knew an agent would be arriving and the officers had described the situation to them the best they could. Bridges & Stalcup stood back & watched as Sweets was removed from the vehicle as gently as possible.

"Call us, let us know." Brides said to Booth as they climbed back in the car. Back to the front line he thought of the officers. He followed the medical team in behind Sweets and found it typical that people who had only just met Sweets would care for him so instantly. But looking down at Sweets on the gurney, it looked like he was practically in pieces.

"You can wait here sir." The young doctor said to Booth. Booth felt like he wasn't old enough to be helping, he wanted the best, someone seasoned. But then again, Sweets was pretty smart, when Booth gave him the benefit of the doubt.

"Look kid, er, Doctor." Booth said pausing the doctor.

"Dr. Phillips." He said, probably used to people asking about his age. Yes, I'm thirty, yes I'm a doctor! He screamed in his own head.

"Okay, Dr. Phillips, look this guy, he's pretty important and I'm going to be going where you are going alright?" Booth wasn't sure his words were making sense. "This happened to him by a gang. And I'm not sure what kind of security system you have here but…"

Dr. Phillips looked to Sweets and the terrible condition he was in and gulped. If this burly agent was concerned a gang might be coming into the hospital then he didn't mind having the big buy around either.

"Sure, yeah, you just have to stay out of the nurses way okay?" Dr. Phillips said and Booth agreed. He didn't really care what the kid said because he wasn't letting Sweets out of his sight this time.

"Why is Brennan calling this late?" Angela asked looking at her phone and answering it. "Hey Sweetie is everything okay?"

"No I'm afraid it is not Angela. Dr. Sweets is in the hospital."

Angela couldn't quite gauge based on Brennan's tone if she was concerned, annoyed or indifferent.

"Okay, what happened, is he okay?"

Angela thought the line might be disconnected because she didn't hear anything. "Bren, are you there?"

Angela heard a heavy breath on the other end of the line a strained voice lined with the stress of impending tears. "I don't know."

Angela immediately shot up out of bed and Hodgins followed suit knowing something was serious.

"Brenn, listen where are you heading to?"

"County, Booth texted he's at County General." Brennan said trying to clear her throat. "Okay sweetie, we are going to be on our way soon okay?"

Angela knew that Brennan was calling her not only about one of their friends but also because she needed someone she could talk to about those pesky 'feelings'.

Booth glanced down at his phone again. He hadn't wanted to make any calls and thus interrupt the doctor's work. He stayed at the back corner of the trauma room as far as he could. He sent a few texts sending agents to the scene where they were, texts to Bridges and Stalcup, text to Brennan and an answer to Caroline Julian as to why she just got a frantic call from Cam about Dr. Sweets being in the ER. Booth answered each one as best as he could. He gave them all the bare minimum for he didn't want to say what he was really seeing and hearing as they worked on Sweets.

"We are moving him upstairs to surgery." Dr. Phillips said to Booth as the nurses pulled the sides of the gurney up. "You can't go in surgery but you can be by the door if you like."

"Yes, thank you." Booth said following them.

"Does he have any family we should be calling?" Dr. Phillips asked as they headed to the elevator.

Booth nodded his head. "They're on their way."

"Yeah that sounds like the guy." D-Dog said and hung up to return to his friends who were waiting.

"Alright, he says they drove by about an hour ago and saw a cop car and some black SUV here." D-Dog reported to the group.

"Man how the hell anyone show up here? That piece of shit was gone man, no way he called someone." DJ-D shouted, obviously upset.

"You call him little man?" The group eyed Big Dog closely. He shook his head no.

"No, you're my family now. I didn't say nothin!"

They weren't sure but they were pretty sure he was telling the truth.

"Maybe the cop went by and picked him up." Another, Tinker, who was huge, suggested.

"Yeah but how that fed show up?" He asked.

"They're all in it together, maybe he has some device on him." Tinker suggested again.

"Well we should have ended him when we had the chance." DJ-D added.

"Man I don't even know how he was still alive, he ain't that big and we did a number on him didn't we?" Tinker said.

"I don't get it, that guy should be dead." DJ-D argued as everyone else's heads bobbed in agreement.

"Well," D-Dog began "we better finish what we started. Where'd them guys say they took him?"

"Gotta be County, it's closest." Tinker said.

"Alright, let's go."

It was midnight and Booth didn't want to look at his phone anymore. He had lost interest in it about half way thru the surgery which luckily didn't take too long to stop the internal bleeding. He followed the gurney after it left there and went to a room near the nurses station. Booth knew what it meant when it was near the station, close for pending emergencies.

He dutifully bobbed his head as the doctors offered him a cup of coffee and gave him a laundry list of injuries and what they had done for them. Booth nodded his head more when they said they would be on staff and could answer questions. He head was tired of bobbing when they said that time would tell and practically wished him luck.

Booth stood outside the door. He preferred to be outside on guard than in the room with Sweets.

"Man we can't all go in there." Tinker reminded them. "You'll set off every alarm bell for sure."

"Send the kid in, no one will know who he is." BJ-D suggested.

"Yeah, what a trusting face right?" They all laughed at that. "Yeah man, worked to get that guy there right?"

Big Dog just watched them all laugh.

The footsteps were so light he hardly heard them coming until they were standing over him as Booth sat crouched on the floor leaning against the door frame.

"Geez Bones you scared the crap out of me." He said standing up.

"Booth what happened, how is he?" Booth stepped aside so she could step around him and into the room. He knew she would know by sight more than he could tell her.

She walked past him and stopped. The room lights had been set to low since it was late and they wanted to let Sweets rest. If Booth hadn't told her it was Sweets she couldn't have guessed on her own. Cam had quickly filed in behind her, past Booth before he could stop her and both women stood silent in the room. They knew enough about the human body to recognize most of what was wrong.

"He came out of surgery fine." Booth said lightly, letting them to continue to take in the injuries.

Brennan walked forward and pulled the charts and began to read them.

"What was the surgery for?" Cam asked holding her stoic pose.

"He had some internal bleeding I guess." Booth said, all the talk a maze of words to him. All he knew was one of his people was down, and down pretty hard.

Cam turned to Brennan for a review of what she had read. "It would appear that Dr. Sweets did have bleeding but they were able to stop it, he has over three dozen lacerations, broken ribs, fractured ribs, bruised…." Brennan's voice failed her and Cam walked close getting there before Booth though she continued reading. "He…he has several broken fingers and lacerations on his hands, the radius and ulna are fractured quite severely…"

"The doctors said he probably pulled his hands and arms up to protect his head. They could see the footprints on his arms and hands." Booth said solemnly. "It did save him from a serious head injury though he's still got some cuts and bruises from before he covered his face."

"So they beat him?" Cam asked trying to catch on with the few bits of info she had been given so far.

"This gang, the East Side 8 prides themselves on working people over with their hands or bats and pipes." Booth explained preferring a spot on the wall over Sweets to look at.

"And then there's less guns or knives to track, those items are fairly commonplace." Cam said understanding.

"They know their stuff." Booth said.

"And there were 8 of them?" Cam asked.

"Maybe 9 if the kid was there." Booth said, further staring down the spot. The worry was starting to subside to a growing rage.

Cam rubbed her head. Nine very in shape big gang guys against Sweets. It wasn't a fair fight. Brennan was still flipping thru the pages.

"Anything more Dr. Brennan?" Cam asked.

"It goes on for several more pages I'm afraid."

"Well, we are just going to take this one day at a time." Cam said trying to keep her grasp on things. She knew she could do this if she just stayed focused. "We need to see everything they brought in, Sweets clothes, the charts everything. We need to document all this so those little bastards will rot in jail for this."

Cam felt in charge, justified, in control and fired up. She looked away from Booth and over at Brennan who had sat down the chart and stood over Sweets, obviously too afraid to even touch him.

Brennan's eyes had turned red and grew damp at the edge. She had never seen someone so destroyed before, never someone this close and so undeserving of a such a thing. Cam walked close, reminding herself to be strong, she could do this. Booth watched the women and bit his lower lip.

Grown men didn't cry he reminded himself, he didn't want a hug or anyone to tell him it was alright, but he knew that was a lie. Six hours ago he was in the car with Sweets, and Sweets was just fine. Now he was standing guard at the door so a gang didn't come in and finish what they started, beating a good man to within an inch of his life.

"I'm mad at him." Brennan said with garbled words that got stuck in his voice. "He's stupid, he's so stupid." She finished in a whisper.

"You don't mean that, he's just…" Cam said to her.

"He shouldn't have tried helping that kid, he's so stupid. He shouldn't be here Cam!"

Brennan was upset, Cam had never seen Brennan upset and unguarded like that.

"Dr. Brennan," Cam began but found her own voice was failing her. "I agree, he's stupid."

Brennan looked up and back at Sweets and the two women stood close and found themselves in a side by side hug. Booth walked out of the room. Not only had they hurt Sweets but they were upsetting the ABC's for Angela was sure to have the same reaction. Booth wanted to hit something, pummel something and then maybe get a hug finally from the ABC's, even just any one of them. But first, pummeling was in order. And not just pummeling but destroying. He wanted to disassemble them piece by piece and…hey, what's that kid doing here…

"Hey!" Booth shouted at the kid down the hall. The kid turned to bold and Booth took off after him.